Tuna Porcupines

Jason had requested a "casserole" for dinner sometime this week. He is extremely specific and detailed with his requests - I know. 

In search of a casserole that would satisfy his matured palette, I brought out my Jean Pare "Main Courses" cookbook:

As I do with most of the Company's Coming cookbooks, I headed straight for the chicken section. No sense looking at the beef or seafood section I figured! HOWEVER - on my way to poultry, I stumbled upon a tuna recipe. Tuna is one of the few fishy things Jason will eat so I was intrigued. This particular tuna recipe was for Tuna Porcupines. Having all the ingredients on hand, I decided to give it a shot.

Ingredients
(I'll write it as it appears in the book but I did double everything for lunches)

7oz (1 tin) flaked tuna, drained
1/2cup long grain rice
1/2cup chopped onion  (I felt creative and used half chopped onion, half celery)
salt
pepper
1 egg, fork beaten

10oz condensed cream of mushroom soup
2/3cup water

Directions
Mix first 6 ingredients together in bowl. Shape into about 14 balls. Place in 9x9inch greased baking dish.

Stir soup and water together well. Pour over balls. Cover. Bake in 350F for about 1 hour until rice is cooked.

To go with this meal, I made some individual salads. One thing I've been using lately in salads is sunflower seeds. You just need a little sprinkle and it adds a nice crunch.

Newman's own salad dressing was on sale today at Safeway so we each picked one out. Jason stuck with a classic Italian and I went for the Sesame Thai (which I can't find a picture of):

The Sesame Thai was SO good and I'm excited to use it more than just salads. It's also a "lightened up" version so it's very low in fat and calories.

MY REVIEW: This was very good and VERY easy. The only thing I would do different is really drain the tuna. It wasn't a huge deal but I had to squeeze my porcupines like a sponge to get them to stick before putting them in the baking dish.


JASON'S REVIEW: The tuna balls were hearty and I couldn't think of a better meal to load up on protein and satiate my craving for amazing culinary creations (I declined his first review due to repetition and he came up with this one. Impressive!).

On another note, we finally bottled our wine yesterday. We had 2 batches of wine that were supposed to be done in time for Christmas but these kits were both expired (we found out after the fact) and they were taking a long time clearing. Sadly, one batch went down the drain. We did, however, manage to salvage 28 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon.  As our printer is out of ink and we were REALLY sick of looking at this wine on the counter, we got creative with the labels:

Not the fanciest labels I've ever made, but it gets the job done.

Chicken in White Wine Sauce with Herbed Corn on the Cob & Dill Potatoes

I made a kind of fancy dinner tonight just because I had the time (and I've been itching to cook something amazing/have leftover wine to drink ever since I saw Julie and Julia). The pictures are severely bland looking!
So I have never cooked corn on the cob before. Jason has made it on the BBQ but I have never made it myself. So I looked up "corn on the cob" just looking for the basics really - boiling time and whatnot. Nothing fancy! I came across this recipe for Herbed Corn on the Cob that I could just not pass up:

Ingredients:
* 4 ears corn, silked and husked (i made 3 because we had 3. Perhaps the typewriter we eat with every night will want one?)
* 1-2 tablespoon butter, melted (your preference to the amount used)
* 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
* 1/4 teaspoon dried sage (thought we didn't have any of this so I left it out - moments after I wrapped the cobs up i found it in the pantry! boo)
* 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
* 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* 1/8 teaspoon pepper
* aluminum foil

1. Preheat oven to 400F or 210°C.
2. In a small bowl, combine butter and dried ingredients.
3. Place corn in aluminium foil and brush corn with herbed butter.
4. Wrap up well and put in oven for about 20 mins or so.
5. Enjoy.

To go with this corn I wanted to find a chicken recipe that had WINE in it. I found this recipe for Chicken in White Wine Sauce:

Ingredients:
* 2 tablespoons flour
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon paprika
* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 4 (4 ounce) boneless skinless chicken breasts (i only made 2 but didn't change anything else in the recipe)
* 1 tablespoon olive oil (I used our great new olive oil spray bottle from Jason's sister! Didn't have to use this much olive oil at all)
* 1/2 cup chicken broth
* 1/2 cup dry white wine (I don't know if it's "dry"... I just used our own home brew)
* 4 teaspoons grated parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine first 4 ingredients in a shallow dish.
3. Dredge chicken in flour mixture.
4. Heat oil in an ovenproof skillet over medium heat.
5. Add chicken; cook 2 minutes on each side or until browned.
6. Add broth and wine.
7. Bring to a boil; remove from heat.
8. Cover and bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until chicken is done.
9. Sprinkle with cheese.

To go with all that, I just boiled some potatoes and mixed in margarine and fresh dill. Jason contributed a lovely garden salad as well.

JASON'S REVIEW: You can't go wrong with protein and carbs and delicious veggies. 10/10.

MY REVIEW: The corn was very good! I'd make it again. The chicken... I don't know. Maybe I didn't leave it in on the stove long enough with the flour mixture. I'd never done chicken like that before so it could have been my fault but once it was done, it seemed to have a kind of gooey coating on it which was the flour. Sadly, I don't think I would make it again.

White Sangria

(I did not take this picture, however it DID look this pretty!)

I made a white wine sangria for my garden party on Saturday. I've made the red one before so I did it pretty much the same way except white wine instead of red. Here's the recipe:

1 orange, sliced
1 lemon, sliced
1 peach, sliced
4 strawberries, sliced
(you could throw any number of fruits & berries in here)

1 bottle of white wine
1 tbsp sugar
2 ounces cointreau

1 bottle ginger-ale

Mix the wine, cointreau and sugar together in a pitcher. Slice the fruits, squeeze the juices into the pitcher then throw the fruit in the pitcher as well. Leave it in the fridge overnight. When serving, mix in some ginger-ale and ice.

MY REVIEW: This was great! A good way to use up all our bottles of wine. I might still prefer the red version of this but white is great as well. It's definitely sweeter & very refreshing.

EVERYONE ELSE'S REVIEW: My mom and Jason both preferred white over red!

... and it was my birthday on Sunday and my mom made this beautiful cake!

Our New Wine

This is my newly designed label for our next batch of wine! My dinners have been repeats lately so nothing new on that front. I'm do plan on making a white wine sangria this weekend so stay posted for that recipe.